Aune Jasper Review and Discussion

Aune Jasper
MSRP $299
The Aune Jasper under review was purchased at retail price from hifigo.com

The Aune Jasper is single 10mm dynamic driver with MGD (multi-gradation diaphragm). Whatever the hell that is. In my day, this was MGD:


Jasper comes in an ergonomic, small metal shell in either silver or black. The underside of the shell has a couple of pinhole vents. The stock cable is MMCX with a right angle plug. The wire is kind of gummy and springy. It’s just dying to be replaced with something more user friendly, soft and pliable. Aune supplies a couple of different types of types but I rarely use stock tips; I quickly landed on Azla Sednafits. The case is a round, puck style case covered in some kind of pleather. The case is too big to pocket; I really don’t understand circular cases for the most part. Give me a nice, pocketable rectangular zipper case.





Vs Moondrop Illumnation ($799)

I have been wanting to review the Aune Jasper ever since I noticed in Crin’s measurement tool that it measured very similarly to the Moondrop Illumination, albeit with a small deep/sub bass boost. Illumination is my reference dynamic driver and my hope was to find a slightly more fun (read bassier) budget variation.



When I first received the Jasper, I was somewhat surprised, if not taken aback, in that it sounds a thinner and cooler in the lower midrange and a bit U shaped in direct comparison. Going back to the measurement comparison above, I guess you can see the Jasper dipping a hair more in the lower midrange. And while the Jasper appears to have more upper treble air, I’m not sure that has any direct correlation for the differences in presentation.

Using test tones, I can hear both rumble to about 18Hz, although the Jasper is a bit louder and felt a bit more down low. The lower midrange is just a bit too close, and too difficult to hear the difference swapping back and forth with test tones. However, things get interesting in lower treble. Jasper just naturally fits a little deeper than Illumination and that deeper fit has the lower treble resonance peak, at 8k on the graph, hitting my ear right about that or perhaps a little higher at 8,100 or 8,200 kHz. Whereas, with Illumination I’m getting that lower treble peak a bit lower, more like 7,500 kHz. My best guess is the extra sub bass of Jasper, combined with the lower treble peak hitting higher up, is giving it the slightly U shaped response I’m hearing compared Illumination. This is something that can’t quite be captured in measurements. Sure you can adjust depth of fit in the coupler to have both hit the 8k resonance peak, but there is just no guarantee you are going to hear the peak in the same place for both IEMs simply due to fit difference.

While Jasper rumbles more with its slight boost down deep, Illumination still reveals better bass textures with more solid bass definition, as well as impact. In this regard, Illumination never fails to surprise me when comparing to more bass boosted sets. Never-the-less, the added sub boost of Jasper makes some electronic music a bit more satisfying down low, but if that bass music shifts to something more mid bass focused, like NWA’s 100 Miles and Running, the more linear bass of Illumination provides a bit more satisfying impact in direct comparison.

Maybe it’s the slight lower midrange depression on Jasper, but Illumination’s vocals, both male and female, are better balanced than Jasper. They are more natural, coherent and transparent. This also translates to more nuanced resolution in throat inflections, intakes of breath, etc. With Jasper there is just a hint of thinness and slightly more sibilance accentuation. Rock guitars have great bite and attack in both set, with the main difference being slightly more body/note weight in Illumination.

Treble comes across as less resonant on Illumination. Passages with busy cymbal work are clearer, cleaner and more delineated. Whereas with Jasper they are more obviously peakier with longer decay. While not being much brighter, this longer, hazier decay on Jasper certainly stands out more, lending itself to the more U shaped signature.

Venting on Jasper is minimal, particularly in comparison to Illumination with its 6 vents on the underside of the housing. As such, Jasper sounds a good bit more closed in and personal compared to Illumination. Illumination is both wider and deeper. There is more space between instruments and performers with more precise layering and placement.

As you can imagine, I’m not really finding Jasper to be a bassier Illumination on the cheap. There are just too many subtle differences that really add up at the end of the day. That’s not to say Jasper isn’t good in its own right, it just means they aren’t nearly as close in tuning as I had assumed they’d be; and that expectations can be a powerful thing. It certainly caught me by surprise.



Vs Moondrop Kato ($189)



While measurements show just a slight difference down low, with Kato having more sub bass, the difference is much more noticeable when heard. Kato is just simply more palpable; it rumbles more and hits harder. Jasper is slightly softer and less defined. While Kato is more boosted overall, it sounds like it has less difference in mid and sub bass elevation. Jasper is more obviously sub bass boosted over its mid bass.

Vocals are much closer between these two than with Illumination, in that neither is out resolving or out performing the other. The biggest difference is that Japser pushes more energy in the upper midrange making vocals slightly thinner and more forward than Kato. Rock guitars have a hair more bite and attack on Jasper and are slightly more smoothed over on Kato.

Jasper comes across as both brighter and slightly thinner in treble weight. The weightier treble of Kato is also brassier in timbre, giving it a slightly truer, more realistic ring to cymbals.

Overall Jasper and Kato are pretty competitive with each other in staging, layering and imaging. I could nick pick here and there but overall there’s not a whole lot of difference.



Conclusion

The comparisons above put Jasper in tight spot. At $299 it’s a good bit more expensive than Kato, while not really exceeding it anywhere but maybe preferences here and there. It’s tuning, on paper, could lead you to believe it’s a reference tuning plus slight bass boost, yet, at least for my ears, it’s more U shaped than reference plus sub bass.

I do enjoy Jasper, particularly on the Cayin RU6 loaner I had recently. It gave it better body and more note weight in the lower midrange and bass. But at the end of the day Kato is still a $100 less and sounds no less endearing on the RU6. Still, it’s a really nice single dynamic driver with very competent and enjoyable tuning. Perhaps just a teak or two from greatness, Jasper is going to just barely miss the list.